How to save money on your energy bills

Dread opening those (sometimes red) reminder letters for utility bills? Stop the quarterly stress of shedding out on energy bills with this expert advice

Life as a student is crescendoing into being a pricey affair – it's getting more and more expensive by the minute. Fees are going up and the cost of living is generally at an all time high, so when it comes to accommodation, many of you pay expensive prices for poor quality housing, which, in between the mouldy walls and dripping taps, is leaking heat like a sieve, meaning you're stumping up more for fuel bills than you should-be. Which is why Eco expert, Mark Krull from logic4training.co.uk share his top tips for keeping your fuel bills dow and your house warm. Plus, Mark will tell you where you stand when it comes to making your landlord put a hand in their pocket.

Things you can do yourself

If you really want to make a difference to your bills, (and reduce your carbon footprint, a happy by product of saving energy), then all your flat mates need to be on board. Draw up a 'house charter' and check how much cash you're paying for heat and light at the start of the year and then compare this with the end. If you've saved money, reward yourselves – I'm sure extra cash for drinks at the pub wouldn't go amiss.

Invest in some thick curtains

It's obvious really, but putting some thick curtains up will keep the heat in and the drafts out. If everyone in your house or flat did this, then you'll probably find radiators being turned down. The other benefit of this is the light is also kept out, so perfect when you're feeling delicate after a night on the town.

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Turn of the lights

One of the problems with communal living is no one taking responsibility for anything – this has to change if you want to save money, so put up some turn off the light stickers in every room. Make sure you've switched all your bulbs to energy saving ones. They may be more expensive but they last a considerable amount longer so end up more cost-efficient.

Learn how the heating works

Take some time to understand your boiler. Use the thermostat to ensure all rooms are at a comfortable temperature. Don't switch it off completely at night – keep it a low base temperature, this is more economical then letting a building go cold. Also, resist lounging around in vest tops and shorts in the middle of winter. Put on a cosy hoodie or jumper and turn the heating down. Switching your thermostat down by one degree will save 8% on your gas bill.

Get your landlord on board

You are well within your rights to ask your landlord to improve the efficiency of your property. The Green Deal, which is being bought in next year, will provide landlords with up-front financing to improve the efficiency of their homes, where tenants request improvements.

For those landlords who don't comply there could be fines of up to £5,000. Items covered by the deal include insulation, for the walls and loft – a third of heat is lost this way, so this will make a massive difference.

Currently landlords are entitled to a tax allowance of up to £1,500 for energy efficiency improvements, available through the Landlord's Energy Saving Allowance (LESA) and could use this cash to update your property now. Make them aware of the grant and suggest low-cost changes such as draught proofing.

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If you're lucky enough to have a landlord with a conscience talk to them about renewables – an eco-friendly scheme. It gives cash-back for energy produced by green technologies; for electricity generating ones, there's Feed in Tariffs (FITs) and in the summer a similar scheme will be put in place for carbon neutral heating, the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).

Landlords with a few homes could end up making money, with any electricity produced under FITs sold back to the national grid. Ultimately this could mean you pay nothing (or very little) for your fuel bills. For more information, visit energysavingtrust.org.uk

And for guidance for landlords on how to be energy effiecent, pass on this link, logic4training.co.uk

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